Behavioural Targeting

08 The Year Ahead - Online
20-Dec-07

Targeting gets serious

As behavioural targeting moves from niche to mainstream, advertisers must avoid consumer backlash. By Nathalie Kilby

Steve Davies, managing partner at Experian Integrated Marketing, says: “Even the biggest clients have viewed the online planning function from a different perspective, not applying the same principles as offline – online planning has evolved from Web development and analytics. They have been happy to co-exist but more clients and agencies are looking to marry the two and apply the same principles to both functions.

He says more marketers and their agencies are waking up to the fact that advertisers need to marry data from offline channels, such as customer relationship management and direct marketing, with online data.

One key development that can boost optimisation and achieve greater return on investment, and which observers say will gain momentum over the next year is behavioural targeting. A series of acquisitions took place in the area in 2007, with AOL buying Tacoda, Yahoo! snapping up Blue Lithium and Google taking over DoubleClick. More recent developments include social networks Bebo, Facebook and MySpace rolling out new strategies around behavioural targeting. And advertisers are keen to get on board – little wonder if they are able to advertise to consumers who really want to see specific ads and who will be influenced by them.

Sky’s Gallacher says it is important to be one step ahead: “What makes me successful this year, won’t do the same for me next year. Early adoption is not ‘a nice to have’. Technical advantage mean competitive advantage. If advertisers are not using behavioural targeting in two years they will be seen as an oddity.” He adds that advertisers can no longer buy ads across blind networks. Instead they must execute more effective planning strategies, and behavioural targeting can help.

There is, however, a fly in the ointment – privacy. Consumers are wary of the online data advertisers hold about them. They consider it “spooky” that faceless corporations gather data on them in order to advertise to them and sell more stuff. Users’ reaction to Facebook’s Beacon platform, built around behavioural targeting, is a clear sign of the negativity surrounding what advertisers know, even about those people who are willing to divulge so much online. Ethical issues are gathering momentum.

They say advertisers must prove the benefits of better targeting and allay concerns about invasion of privacy and “Big Brother” techniques. “The customer is not ready for individual targeting and nor are advertisers,” adds Katz. “But segmenting in the way we do offline around trends, groups and behaviours means more benefit for consumers. The purpose of advertising should be to enlighten people about what is available. The negativity must and can be countered if consumers understand the benefit.”